Geiberger Starts, Ends 3 Ahead : Golf: But in between, Tournament of Champions senior winner has to stave off charges from Rodriguez, Crampton.

At first glance it appeared that Al Geiberger scored a routine victory in the senior division of the Infiniti Tournament of Champions.

He went into the final round Sunday at La Costa with a three-stroke lead and, despite shooting a one-over-par 73, won by three with a 72-hole total of 282, six under par.

But the victory, the seventh since Geiberger, 54, joined the Seniors PGA Tour, was anything but easy.

“There were some anxious moments,” he said. “You may think a two- or three-shot lead is a good one, but it can disappear in a hurry. There were two big scares today.”

Bruce Crampton and Chi Chi Rodriguez finished at 285, but each took a serious run at the top.

Crampton entered the final 18 holes six strokes behind Geiberger. By the sixth hole, Crampton trailed by one.

The defending champion, Crampton birdied the second, fourth and sixth holes, and Geiberger had bogeys on the first and fifth.

But Crampton couldn’t pull even and had pars the rest of the way until he three-putted the 18th hole.

Rodriguez, who was three strokes behind after three rounds, was off to a worse start than Geiberger, his playing partner. Rodriguez had three bogeys in the first six holes, then put on a furious rally.

Beginning with the seventh, he birdied four of the next six holes. He went into the 13th hole one stroke behind.

The tournament was decided on the next two holes. The 13th is a 410-yard par four. After a long drive, Rodriguez hit a short approach to within five feet of the pin. Geiberger was 15 feet from the hole. But Geiberger sank his long putt, and Rodriguez missed his to fall two shots behind.

Another two-stroke switch on 14 put Geiberger in command.

“When we walked off the 13th,” Geiberger said, “Chi Chi muttered, ‘I thought I’d pick up the stroke here. Instead, I lose one.’ ”

When Rodriguez makes a birdie he goes into his sword act that is popular with his fans.

“I was getting tired of seeing him pull out that sword,” Geiberger said. “He had been pulling it out almost every hole. I was feeling sort of the way opposing football coaches do when the Trojan horse starts running around the track at the Coliseum.”

Throughout the four rounds, Rodriguez has talked about his rediscovered friend, a Gyro putter. His driver did the job throughout, but the putter seemed to be an every-other-day friend. He putted brilliantly in the first and third rounds, but was inconsistent in the other two.

Sunday, the putter practically deserted him. He missed three putts of five feet and two others of 18 inches or less.

Crampton, who had some tough luck on putts and barely missed a shot out of a trap after getting within a stroke of the lead, was beside himself at the end and wouldn’t talk.

Lee Trevino, the gallery favorite, went into the final round trailing by five shots. Despite Geiberger’s slow start, Trevino was out of contention by the third hole. On the first hole, a 412-yard par four, his second shot landed in heavy grass between two deep traps in front of the green. When he tried standing in a trap, he sank down too deep to hit the ball. His solution was to face the fairway and hit a wedge left-handed. He hit an excellent shot, but it rolled several feet up the hill past the hole. He missed the par putt.

Another bogey on the par-three third hole took him out of contention.

Trevino finished at 287, one under par and tied with Harold Henning and DeWitt Weaver.

Geiberger, who assured himself of a return next January, won the regular Tournament of Champions in 1975 in a playoff. His first prize of $52,500 Sunday was more than twice as much as he earned 17 years ago.

Although some of the seniors would like to have a separate Tournament of Champions because they feel they are treated as second-class citizens, Geiberger has no quarrel.

“I find nothing wrong with their winner making so much more ($144,000),” he said. “After all, it was nice of them to include us when we only had a few tournament winners. I think we add to it, but it’s their T of C.”